GOP Sen. Rick Scott says Republicans are 'parroting' Democratic attacks on his tax plan only hours after McConnell criticized it

• Scott pushed back against Republicans criticizing his agenda, which includes a tax hike.
• McConnell said earlier that a GOP Senate majority wouldn't hike taxes or sunset safety net programs.

GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida took a fresh swing at critics in his own party on Thursday, saying that Republicans are adopting Democratic attacks against his sprawling agenda which includes a tax increase on the poorest Americans.

"Democrats are lying about the plan, and Republicans are parroting what they're saying," Scott said at an event at the Heritage Foundation. "I'm not going to raise taxes on anybody."

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However, Scott's "Rescue America" plan does include a measure aimed at compelling every American to pay some federal income tax so they'll have "skin in the game." That would amount to a tax increase since it would mean Americans who currently don't pay any federal income tax would start doing so.

Many aren't obligated to pay federal income taxes since they don't earn enough to do so. That doesn't mean low-income workers pay zero in taxes — they tend to pay sales taxes and payroll taxes on their wages instead.

The Scott plan includes another provision to sunset every federal law after five years, opening the possibility that Congress would have to periodically reapprove safety-net programs providing retirement and health benefits to Americans if it were implemented.

Scott's comments came only hours after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell re-emphasized that Republicans' "agenda will not be raising taxes on half the American people or sunsetting Medicare, Social Security or Medicaid."

"I don't think that's a strategy that's useful to a candidate say in Arizona or Nevada," McConnell said during a Punchbowl News interview on Thursday morning.

A spokesperson for McConnell declined to comment.

Democrats have seized on these pieces of the Scott agenda as fodder to run attack ads against Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Wednesday announced a five-figure digital advertising campaign focused on Scott's tax proposal. It's aimed at reaching older voters in eight states including Nevada, Georgia, Florida, and New Hampshire.

And the DSCC had its own presence outside the Heritage event on Thursday, with people holding signs calling attention to the "GOP tax hike" in his plan.

Scott is widely viewed as harboring presidential ambitions in 2024. He has said he released his agenda as a rank-and-file Senate Republican, not in his party leadership role as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, their campaign arm. But the move has strained his relationship with McConnell, who strongly rejected his platform.

"We have some differences of opinion about strategy," McConnell said Tuesday. "But I think we'll get past that."

The Florida Republican has only dug in, recently comparing himself to the Civil War Union general and eventual president Ulysses S. Grant.

During the Heritage event, Scott said he wanted to prod more Americans to find a job instead of relying on public assistance programs. "If you're sitting on your butt and you can work, and you're going to rely on government, I'm going to stop and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen," Scott said.

Asked by Insider about his tax proposal, the Florida Republican doubled down on his insistence that it does not amount to a tax increase. "I'm not raising taxes," Scott said, adding that he wanted "able-bodied" Americans to go to work.

Under the hypothetical scenario of a $100 minimum tax, the Tax Policy Center estimated the Scott proposal would increase taxes by roughly $1,000 among Americans earning less than $27,000.